News - Page 179

Patton Oswalt has signed on to play Charlize Theron's chubby best friend in Young Adult. Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody, who last worked together on Juno, are teaming up again for the film about a woman who returns to her high school town to basically stalk her old boyfriend like she's Marky Mark. The guy's got a wife and kid now though, so he's not interested in Charlize. Not interested? His Mrs. must do crazy sh*t in the sack.
Josh Brolin decided he couldn't pretend Charlize isn't worth leaving his wife for and now Patrick Wilson is in talks for the role. Seems like a missed opportunity to put Wilson in a fat suit and cast him as the best friend and Oswalt as the ex-boyfriend. I'd love to watch Charlize beg Oswalt to have sex with her and he looks up at her with stern eyes and proclaims, "No, Ugly!" (/Film)

Shrek?
When mumbly actor Mark Ruffalo was hired to take over the Hulk reins from Edward Norton in Marvel Studio's The Avengers, it was assumed he'd only appear as a drowsy-looking Bruce Banner. Now he's let it slip that the Hulk will appear like he just woke from a catnap as well. Ruffalo tells Vulture:
"I'm really excited. No one's ever played the Hulk exactly, they've always done CGI. They're going to do the Avatar stop-action, stop-motion capture. So I'll actually play the Hulk. That'll be fun."
Stop-motion capture? Is that like taking a photo?
This should be interesting to see. Ruffalo seems too laidback to pull off the Hulk's rage, but I think he could surprise us. Then again, he's never performed in such an effects-heavy film before, and has no experience acting against nothing. Unless, of course, you count Jennifer Aniston.

As you can tell from the above pic, Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX is a splended event for ass-picking. It also screens some mind-bending and stomach churning genre films that you won't see anywhere else. This was my first time at Fantastic Fest and I loved the vibe of the event. Everyone was jazzed to be gathering at a festival that showcases martial arts movies in one theater, cannibal movies in the next, and of course torture porn just down the hall. The festival goes through this Thursday, but I certainly took in my fill of askew cinema over the past five days. You can check out our reviews at the Fantastic Fest page, which I&rsquo;ll continually update, as our writer Fred is still over in Austin soaking up the on-screen madness and mayhem.

Stephen Fry has joined the cast of Sherlock Holmes 2. Guy Ritchie's exxxtreme take on British literature will add Fry in the role of Holmes's older brother, Mycroft. Here's what the witty actor had to say of the part:
"I'm playing Mycroft in the sequel to the Sherlock Holmes film Guy Ritchie directed with Robert Downey Jr., and that sort of part is fun, but just once in a while to play a genuine all round sort of lead figure with complexity and tragedy and wit and all the sort of things that Oscar [Wilde] had was a once in a lifetime thrill."
Okay. Can someone translate that from British to English for me and let me know if it was witty or not? Anyway, in the original stories, Mycroft was considered just as brilliant as Sherlock but was lazy and unwilling to prove his deductions. There's no word yet how the character will be shaped in the sequel nor any on whether or not he'll be an exxxtreme cage fighter. (Bleeding Cool)

Guillermo del Toro has inked a deal with DreamWorks for his first animated film: Trollhunters. Based on a children's book authored by del Toro himself, the story will be geared toward kids (duh) and will focus on…wait for it…trolls!
"I wanted very much to develop a story that could be written for kids but dealt with a genre that was scary," he tells the Heat Vision Blog. "It essentially combines fairy tales with modern times and is about how difficult it is to be a kid. Normally, kids are idealized in animated films. But the growing pains, married with the notion that there is a world right next to us that is completely plagued by creatures of ancient lore, it's thematically fitting with the rest of my stuff."
No word yet on whether these trolls will deny the holocaust and claim Obama is a secret Muslim Homojew, or if they'll just stick to living under bridges and eating bones. (Heat Vision via Empire)

Everyone knows that Hobbits, with their hairy leather feet, hate wearing shoes. Well now we can add another item to the list of things hobbits despise: organized labor.
Various unions, including the Screen Actors Guild and the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance of Australia, have officially warned their members not to take part in the production of the film due to a dispute over working conditions and residual payments. In response, producer/director Peter Jackson is claiming the move is an attempt by Austrialian interests to gain control of New Zealand's film industry and is threatening to move production to Eastern Europe if the matter is not resolved.
&ldquo;There is a twisted logic to seeing NZ humiliated on the world stage, by losing the Hobbit to Eastern Europe," he said. "Warners would take a financial hit that would cause other studios to steer clear of New Zealand. Seriously, if the Hobbit goes east (Eastern Europe in fact) – look forward to a long dry big budget movie drought in this country."
Personelly, I thinks Jacksons actions be deplorable. Unions is vary important. Four example, the Tearchers Unions' are vary big in the USA, and education ain't never been better. Sham on u, Peter jackon (Empire Online)

The RZA and Elijah Wood Sing Black Eyed Peas at Fantastic Fest – Watch more Funny Videos
At Nerdeoke tonight at The Highball during Fantastic Fest, RZA, Elijah Wood, and friends gathered on stage to sing "I Gotta Feeling" by The Black Eyed Peas. Will.i.am was nowhere to be found, but somewhere his ears were ringing as part of the Wu Tang spit his flow.

I&rsquo;ve been very excited that so many Asian action films are in the Fantastic Fest lineup. I love martial arts and Hong Kong action, although one subgenre that doesn&rsquo;t do much for me is the Hong Kong cop movie. Fire of Conscience is one of those, and if that&rsquo;s your pet genre than I&rsquo;d imagine this one is a solid entry, but not for me.

Manfred (Leon Lai) is a tough cop who beats up perps because they deserve it. Kee (Richie Ren) is a more optimistic inspector with a baby on the way. Those two and Manfred&rsquo;s team of cops (Michelle Ye and Kai Chi Liu) pursue a case of drugs, bombs and money.
More after the jump…

Fearnet&rsquo;s web series &ldquo;Zombie Roadkill&rdquo; premiered at FantasticFest in its 30-minute entirety. It will be online in five parts beginning in October. &ldquo;Zombie Roadkill&rdquo; has a good spirit of silly fun and extreme gore. This is definitely a spoof done with a wink, with love for the genre. It&rsquo;s not Shaun of the Dead but it&rsquo;s something to watch online in parts.
More after the jump…

I think we all have a healthy attitude about straight to video sequels. We know they&rsquo;re not going to be careful attempts to forward the story, but they can either have fun with it or not, and either way it doesn&rsquo;t ultimately matter. Well, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days is not fun, and it is aggressively bad even by DTV standards.
More after the jump…

Usually, a living legand like Bob Dylan doesn&rsquo;t lower himself to something as crass as commercial television. Well, not unless it involves Pepsi, women&rsquo;s underwear, or &ldquo;Dharma and Greg.&rdquo; But America&rsquo;s poet will come out of hiding on an upcoming episode of the History Channel's &ldquo;Pawn Stars.&rdquo; I&rsquo;ll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I refer to it as just &ldquo;History.&rdquo;

Chumlee, the fat guy from the show (by fat guy I mean fattest guy), stalks Dylan and ambushes him outside a hotel. I have no idea if Dylan was in on it, although it is odd that he&rsquo;s just walking around Vegas with no security. Hopefully the episode won&rsquo;t inspire a new generation of Mark David Chapman&rsquo;s. (TV Squad via Vulture)

It sucks we won&rsquo;t see Edward Norton as Bruce Banner in The Avengers, especially the way it went down. The recasting has been well-covered and Norton even told MTV he laughs about it now. The good news it, it sounds like Mark Ruffalo playing Banner in The Avengers doesn&rsquo;t rule out another solo Hulk film that could continue with Norton.

&ldquo;No, I don&rsquo;t rule out anything,&rdquo; Norton said while promoting Stone at FantasticFest. &ldquo;As I think was amply demonstrated, I think a lot of those things on the other side of the table are big business, which I respect. I don&rsquo;t have any urgency about it one way or the other.&rdquo;

No rush, of course. Certainly Edward Norton will do fine in his career. It&rsquo;s
good to hear Marvel hasn&rsquo;t told him they won&rsquo;t continue a solo Hulk franchise.

&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t say,&rdquo; Norton hedged. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a fan of those films. I hate when they screw them up so I hope they do it right.&rdquo;

Maybe Marvel&rsquo;s hedging their bets. They had some needs for The Avengers but people liked The Incredible Hulk, so they could always alternate. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got so many things I&rsquo;m working on that I&rsquo;m interested in. People have been completely great about the film we made and I&rsquo;m happy about that. I have nothing to complain about.&rdquo;

Singer/Actress/Disney-Robot AJ Michalka has joined the cast of Super 8, Dread Central is reporting. The young pop star, who was last seen in The Lovely Bones, will star in the J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg film about a group of teens who capture the image of a fugitive alien on their Super 8 camera.

For those of you over the age of 12, AJ Michalka is half of the Disney rock band pictured above, 78Violet (formerly Aly and AJ). I have no idea which one she is, and after watching the video for their song, "Like Whoa," I think it's better I don't know. If you can make it through the whole video (below), leave a comment, and I'll personally send you a reward in the mail. God knows you deserve something for your suffering. Offer expires at midnight (PST).

The screengrab above may look like something from "Mythbusters" but it's actually a shot from the new teaser trailer for gory sequel The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence). The teaser features Tom Six, the blood-spattered director, walking through a parking garage while his voice-over prepares us for a film far more shocking than the original.
We're then introduced to one of the film's lead actors — dude with a box on his head. Good to see that guy making a comeback.
Check out the trailer after the jump…

Captain America: The First Avenger is busy shooting on the streets of Manchester, and the Internet has gone mad over this exciting behind-the-scenes video. In the clip, director Joe Johnston demonstrates why he is considered a master, expertly guiding his actor, Chris Evans, as they film a pivotal scene.

No need for me to oversell it. Sit back and enjoy this rare glimpse of movie magic. (/Film)
Watch Captain America director Joe Johnston make movie magic after the jump…

Pew pew! Pew pew pew!!
After Whiteout turned out to be a washout, Kate Beckinsale is ready to return to the Underworld franchise. The actress has officially signed on to reprise her role of Selene, the hot karate vampire she played in Underworld and Underworld: Evolution. She did not return for the third film in the series, Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans, otherwise known as Cliff-Sex: The Movie.
The search for a director is underway, as Len Wiseman will only return in a producer capacity. There's also no word yet on what outlandish sex location will be featured this time around. (Coming Soon)

Linkin Park?
Alex Winter has corroborated Keanu Reeves' story from earlier this week. William S. Preston, Esq. himself, told MTV that a third Bill & Ted film is in the works. They were struggling to find the right plot for a while, but now writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon have hatched a plot that they've begun writing.
The big issue, however, is what to do about George Carlin's character? Winter assures there's no way they would re-cast the part, so the trick now is to delicately work around his character. I'm hoping this means they'll use sophisticated Coke commercial CGI technology to bring him back to life. If I know Carlin, that's definitely what he would want to happen. (MTV)

Now that's just super!
Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas, the producers behind the upcoming Superman film, have begun interviewing potential directors, Deadline is reporting. Nolan will reportedly submit his choice to Warner Bros. as early as next week.
On the list: Unstoppable's Tony Scott, Let Me In director Matt Reeves, Battle: Los Angeles helmer Jonathan Liebesman (who just got the Warner Bros/Legendary job of directing Clash of the Titans 2), Duncan Jones, who just directed Source Code, and Sucker Punch helmer Zack Snyder.
What? This list is a farce! No Crispin Glover? No David Lynch? No thank you, Mr. Nolan.

Let the web slinging begin!
Director Marc Webb has reportedly auditioned Emma Stone for the part of Mary Jane in his upcoming Spider-Man reboot. Stone, who was most recently seen in Easy A, would take over for Kirsten Dunst who played Mary Jane in the first three films.

There are also reports that Webb is auditioning Mia Wasikowska for the part of Gwen Stacy, Spidey's first love. If true, it sounds like we might have a good old-fashioned cat-fight on our hands. Of course I'm referring to Puma (a.k.a. Thomas Fireheart), Spider-Man's nemesis with the ability to morph into a powerful humanoid mountain lion werecat! (Vulture)

"So, Shia. When I told you to 'f**k off,' what I really meant was 'f**k off.'"
Oliver Stone just sky-rocketed to the position of my favorite person on Earth with today's news that he told Shia LaBeouf to eff off. LaBeouf recounted the story at the Wall Street 2 premiere:
"We're in the Adirondacks, and Josh Brolin and I are shooting this bike scene, and at one point I say to Josh a line — 'You should look at yourself in the mirror first and see yourself. It might scare you.' I looked at the line for a couple of months and thought I'd go to Oliver and say, 'You look at the mirror and look at yourself. It's sort of repetitive. Why don't we just cut one of those? Why don't I say, Look at yourself. It might scare you.' This is Oliver verbatim. He looks at me and goes, 'I like mirror. I wrote Scarface. Go fuck yourself.'"
Oliver Stone, I officially forgive you for U-Turn. Now, could you please cast Justin Bieber in one of your films? (Vulture)

With movies like Dan In Real Life, Gnomeo and Juliet, The Wolfman, and Gulliver's Travels on her resume, you'd think Emily Blunt would be a little less apt to take a role in a goofy movie. You'd think.
Nope, the actress is going to flush away all the street cred she earned starring in those flicks by signing on to Engagement Games. The plot reads like a Kate Hudson fever dream; three sisters get engaged around the same time and compete for their mother's wedding ring. The father (probably played by Alan Alda) comes up with the idea of crowning the victor after a round of Family Olympics. May the best curler win! (Pajiba)

The King of the "mockumentary" is back, and this time he's taking aim at retro collectors. Christopher Guest, the man behind Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, is returning to his director's chair, and he's bringing along Harry Shearer and Michael McKean.
Guest, Shearer and McKean are putting their heads together to make a movie about the world of retro collectors; people who ferret out such things as old comic books, Barbie dolls, vintage magazine ads, vinyl 45-rpm singles, or even &ndash; ick! &ndash; Charles Manson song lyrics written on Kleenex. There&rsquo;s a massive underground of collectors who would do the Borgia&rsquo;s proud as they scheme and double-cross to possess the item they crave.
While there has been no confirmation that this is, in fact, a mockumentary, chances are high. If so, will it do as well as the Casey Affleck/Joaquin Phoenix mockumentary, I'm Still Here, which has grossed an estimated $259,290? Only time will tell. (WOW via MovieFone)

Aside from sitting through a Tyler Perry movie marathon, what&rsquo;s more horrifying than the thought of being buried alive? OK, fine; watching Love, Actually. But you get my point. Being put underground and left for dead is a horrifying prospect. Which is what makes the new film, Buried, so intriguing.
The premise is simple: a man, played by Ryan Reynolds, wakes up six-feet underground with nothing but a lighter, a knife, a cell phone, and no recollection of how he got there. In fact, the premise is so simple that it doesn&rsquo;t seem like it could carry a feature film. But based on the positive reviews thus far, the filmmakers found a way to make a compelling movie about a man in a box.
In honor of this achievement, we&rsquo;ve put together a list of nine classic &ldquo;buried alive&rdquo; movies. Enjoy, or so help me God, I will put you in the ground while you&rsquo;re still breathing.

"Oops. Didn't see you there. I was just posing naturally."
MTV met up with James McAvoy to talk about his upcoming turn as Professor X in Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class. He knows that he has some large shoes to fill, as the role seemed tailor-made for Patrick Stewart, but he's confident that he can bring his own touch to it.
"I'm basically going to try and bury Patrick's performance. I think the fun about these films, when you go back and you either reboot or do a prequel, is you get to see how people became who they are. That means that you have to do them differently and by the end of the movie you have to do them the same way. The interesting journey is what happens to them, what changes them, what makes them evolve &mdash; not just mutate, but emotionally and psychologically evolve."
Oooo. Those are some tough words. I'd be careful what I say about Sir Patrick Stewart. The man is quick with a comeback after all.

James Corden and Patrick Stewart clash at Awards – Watch more Funny Videos

"Oh, you want to give me my own movie? Okay."
If you bought a movie ticket to Elektra and enjoyed it so much that you went out and bought a DVD or Blu-Ray copy, it's time for you to ask for extra shifts at the Moron Store (where you work) so that you can save up for the next needless big screen adaptation from Marvel. Marvel head Kevin Feige confirmed today that they have been in talks with Scarlett Johansson about her Iron Man 2 non-character Black Widow getting her own movie.
They're not going to get too deep into discussions regarding plot just yet though. The Avengers is their number one priority. They have artistic integrity, you guys. (Screen Crave)

Just call him Leonardo DiCoinoprio. Christopher Nolan has unveiled plans to some Romans that a video game based off Inception is in the works.
"We are looking at doing is developing a videogame based on the world of the film, which has all kinds of ideas that you can't fit into a feature film. That's something we've been talking about and are looking at doing long term, in a couple of years."
Is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this. My mind is still pretty messed up as is thanks to the end of Metroid. (Variety)

For years, I've been writing the major studios and begging them to make a film about American servicemen engaging in hardcore gay sex and taking part in a plot to kill George W. Bush. And for years, the Secret Service has been asking me to stop. And stop I will, now that my requests have finally been answered by none-other than the Wachowski Brothers (or whatever you call them now) and their new film, Cobalt Neural 9.
The story starts off as, yes, a hardcore romance between the American soldier and the Iraqi soldier during the second Gulf War– they are depicted "rutting like animals behind this fence" while wearing burqas– but when disaster strikes, the two plot to kill the man responsible for the war: George W. Bush.
Wow, I'm not sure that will play in Peoria. But then again, I could be wrong. After all, two dudes wearing burqas and "rutting like animals" still sounds less gay than Wachowski's live action version of Speed Racer. (Cinema Blend)